Hostile flare opinion

[BezKa]

Before you write "just don't use it" in the replies, please know I'm not writing this for discussion. It's feedback of my feelings, the arguments here are not cold hard facts and are just about me trying to figure out what feels so wrong about the item for me.

The moment the flare was added something didn't feel right. It felt like way too much control in the hands of the player, considering all it's uses.

For pirate raids, it fits thematically. But is actually pretty unnecessary, and imo there could be way better mechanics of inviting a raid to happen, whether just changing the numbers, or luring them in by carrying valuable items on your boat. Even just making the normal flare have a chance to summon them would have been better, making it a fun risk to try showing other players the location of the Moon Quay. It would also give a reason to make flares in a solo world.

The summoning of Walruses feels like another nerf to winter. We can argue about food that grows in temperatures well below zero, but the task of getting the tusk has always been one of leaving your fire pit, grabbing items that will help you stay warm, and battle freezing along with the hunting party. And yes, for an experienced player fighting McTusk is child play, but you still had to leave your safe haven to do it. With flare being a tusk delivery summon, it feels kind of strange. Once again, normal flare could have played this role no problem, but it still would leave a bad taste in my mouth. Why would Tusk travel through the entire map when normally he's too afraid to walk several tiles away from his igloo?

My guess from the start about why Deerclops of all things got put on the table was that it was to compensate for the "laziness" of players who want walking canes without even leaving the base. Fully prepared for some ice dogs and a range attacker, you get your base smashed to pieces by a uninvited guest. One you might not be ready to fight, and which will destroy at least a part of your base. Solution to this is however trivial, because setting up a single fire pit two screens away from your actual camp solves the destruction problem. It's only a matter of fighting the boss.

And as much as we can talk about new players who die to random causes all the time, and how challenging it would be for them to fight two Deers in one winter, let's be honest, they're not gonna play with the flare unless they already have someonethere to guide them. And Deerclops becomes much easier with even one person helping.

Eyebrella, which seems to be both loved and despised on the forums, imo should remain a luxury item you can only get in special circumstance- which is a boss that comes back every winter. Because the item is stupid good, at some point it has become more important (for me) to focus on getting sewing kit ingredients than to actually prepare for the Deerclops fight.

My thoughts get messy on this part- i can imagine very well the desire to get as many eyeballs for all your friends on the server as soon as possible. I understand it, because while playing with friends this was exactly what I thought as we chased clops across the killer bee biome. If only we could get three eyes right at the start.

However, this is what made killing Deerclops in next years so important. It didn't stop being a relevant part of the game, with waiting for it through the winter. And of course, satisfaction after surviving together for three years and being rewarded with each getting the "rare" or "scarce" item was what people play video games for.

Deerclops is also one of two remaining bosses that actually seek you out in DST (unless you count antlion's sinkholes), and it feels unnatural to just be able to call it over. It's ruining the image of the rogue beast stomping through the night searching for structures to destroy, at least in my eyes.

I'd probably have more to say, but i think this is enough. I know any changes to hostile flare are highly unlikely, because too many people got hyped on a Uber Boss Delivery item and the backlash would be hysterical, but I still wanted to explain properly how I feel on the topic without spamming someone else's thread.

Overall, please consider which parts of the game we should have that much power over in the future. For me it's stretching it, especially for an item this easy to obtain.

And yes, you forumites, I will not use it. I don't need it.

[Frosty_Mentos]

I get the point you're making, but in multiplayer setting every player with too much knowledge about this game than most can handle (like me) don't like the small chances for trivial items that we're supposed to have prepped and have. Eyeballs have limited uses and can be deemed useless if replaced with other items, but they're just simple and convenient luxury that we shouldn't struggle on having.

Tams are a super luxury I feel if you've not got the triple tusk biome, while you can get a cane from Ancient Guardian much faster and easier than single tusk, tams can be substituted by many hats or just helms. Though I wish treasures were to have a higher chance for canes. Maybe should get a party of people sitting on the boat reading treasure map bottles with me for a season or two to deal with getting the chances of them idk...

Many pains to gather some of these things, no pleasure in wanting to go into the grind unless they have better alternatives.